I was taken aback when Mr. Fancy Schmancy shouted "A pox on both your houses!" as I was unaware that he knew of my summer home. Founding member of the Hogtown Irregulars, and former indentured short order cook still on the run. Professional Zamboni racer and bronze medal recipient in the 2010 All-Miami Outdoor Zamboni Championships.

Monday, April 23, 2007

"When Cho Seung-Hui armed himself with a 9mm Glock for his rampage (he also carried a .22-caliber Walther) he was standing in a tradition of bloodshed stretching back more than a century, adding to a toll that almost certainly dwarfs that of the legendary Colt six-shooters. German officers in World War I shot deserters with their Lugers, the original 9mm semiautomatic. When four New York City cops mistakenly unleashed a fusillade of 41 shots on the unarmed Amadou Diallo in 1999, they were firing 9s. It's an icon of rap culture: "Cock my nine, and separate yo' head from yo' spine," Ice Cube memorably muttered in homage to the murdered Notorious B.I.G. Of the 188 shots fired in the Columbine High School massacre, which until Virginia Tech set the standard for depraved mass schoolroom slaughter, 55 came from Dylan Klebold's Tec-9."

Can one NOT mention Diallo when speaking about firearms in the streets? Score one major liberal point here, so good job, fella. Add a totally unrelated but highly visible legend to the story, and people who know little better will automatically go into full frontal cringe.

"It's a lethal gun, but then all guns are. A 9mm round—romantically called a "parabellum," from the Latin slogan ("If you seek peace, prepare for war") of its original German manufacturer—weighs a little more than a quarter of an ounce, with a diameter of about three eighths of an inch."

Parabellum means For War. There is absolutely nothing romantic about it unless one happens to either love or hate inanimate objects as much as a liberal can.

"Exiting the barrel at about 1,100 feet per second, almost the speed of sound, it can kill at ranges in excess of 100 yards. But essentially, it's a weapon for short-range self-defense—a "very up-close and personal kind of weapon," says Dan Shideler, editor of the Standard Catalog of Firearms. In the hands of a novice shooter, as NEWSWEEK's Raina Kelley discovered at a Connecticut gun range last week, it delivers a fearsome kick, which leads to anticipatory flinching, causing the barrel to drop and the shot to miss low. A few experts maintain that lower-caliber rounds, such as .22s (about a fifth of an inch in diameter) can be equally deadly. They make a smaller hole, but a .22 "tends to bounce around in the body," whereas a 9mm round often passes right through, says Fred Starkey, a veteran LAPD officer. But the ones who should know best—the militaries of at least 70 countries, including, since 1985, the United States—have come down in favor of the 9mm sidearm."

A 454 Casull with the right ammunition can deliver a fearsome kick. A 9 mm GLOCK-19, no. Not even close. And it was just last week that retired NYPD no-nothing Bo Deedle said the exact same words when speaking of the .22 LONG RIFLE, the cliche'd cop response that features talk of all that "bouncing around inside." The .22 LR is used to deliver execution style shots to the head, case closed, and does no bouncing nor leaping or jumping or cavorting either. Never, ever speak with a member of law enforcement if you want to learn anything about a firearm. And please now. Militaries use the 9 because of logistic reasons as well as the fact that NATO soldiers can't shoot anything more serious without needing wrist surgery, and the US Military is currently seeking to drop it all together because of its ineffectiveness.

"And increasingly so do American police forces. About 60 percent of the firearms in use by police are 9mms, many of them Glocks, whose relatively lightweight part-plastic bodies make them a good choice for someone who has to carry one around all day."

Wrong again. The 9 mm is DECREASING in popularity simply because it is not enough gun. It is daily being replaced by, most of all the .40 S&W, along with the .357 SIG, and .45 ACP's and GAP.

"But there are trade-offs. Before 1993, when the NYPD phased out revolvers in favor of Glocks, the officers who shot Diallo could have gotten off a maximum of 24 shots altogether before stopping to reload—and, perhaps, to rethink."

Diallo, yet again, so score another point. One does NOT stop and rethink when engaged in a gun battle. Diallo was repeatedly told to halt, did not, and the officers fired until the threat was over. End of sob story.

"Many ordinary citizens now have 9-millimeters for protection as well, which means, inevitably, that they get used to settle arguments between spouses or friends. Last month, according to police in Ft. Smith, Ark., a feud between next-door neighbors led to a confrontation that ended in gunfire—a bullet from a 9mm Ruger in the head. (Police believe the gun was legally owned.) Or they get picked up by children, who find the trigger much easier to pull than the one on a revolver..."

Many citizens DO use the 9 because it has no recoil to speak of and is easier to learn to shoot than any of the larger calibers. With millions of firearms in the hands of "ordinary citizens", finding but one that was used to kill another ordinary citizen is remarkable, but the loon doesn't even know how silly all this sounds. And guess what? Many police "confrontations" lead to the discharge of a weapon, and so what? The author fails report upon the single most important thing a journalist is supposed to do. Was the shooting justified? Tell us oh sage one, or don't mention it at all. But the clincher of course is in mentioning, the children, the children. Then lying that EVERY 9 is easier to shoot than EVERY revolver, or so he intimates. This is not true, and if it were he'd include the definitive trigger pulls of the weapons in question, along with precisely how many children pull such triggers. I myself have a S&W revolver with a much smoother and easier pull than a G-22 with a NY 2 trigger that I'm in the process of swapping out because it is impossible to shoot with any degree of speed or accuracy.

Lets summarize; 9mm's have one helluva kick, but the ordinaries use them anyway. Most cops no longer use 9mm's but at one time did so that means they still do. .22 LR's bounce like a Pensy Pinkie on acid. Amadou Diallo was shot a lot of times. Parabellum means romantic. The being phased-out, too weak for the streets 9mm, has already dwarfed the legendary Colts that are still in use every day and being copied and sold more than ever before. Rap songs feature GLOCKS so that means they must be bad because rap songs wouldn't lie to us. Our military detests the 9 but because of the failed experiment with it that means it is one bad ass platform.

This particular fisking could go on forever.

Bottom Line: 9 mm's have been adjudged too weak for both law enforcement and the military, and the few cop shops that cling to them do so because of one or two factors that have nothing to do with the effectiveness of the caliber in question. Women and small men find them easier to operate. Politically-correct departments do not DARE use anything better.